I think a lot of it has to do with your hunting experience. If you are an experienced hunter then holding out for a trophy may leave you with an empty freezer and only great memories of the hunt.

As you get more experienced and more into the harder challenge of holding out for something special that takes over. That special thing is hunger pains… I personally have shot quite a few two and small three pointers and this year I plan dropping the fist thing that is within range. I will never hold out until the last day of the season and then will take anything legal to put meat in the freezer.

For trophy hunters I fully understand holding out for a big buck and don't fault them for it.

But seriously, I think that it’s a good thing that we all have different expectations in mind when venturing into the field and I have a lot of respect for someone willing to take on the challenge of holding out for a trophy buck.

I think a lot of it has to do with your hunting experience. If you are an experienced hunter then holding out for a trophy may leave you with an empty freezer and only great memories of the hunt.

As you get more experienced and more into the harder challenge of holding out for something special that takes over. That special thing is hunger pains… I personally have shot quite a few two and small three pointers and this year I plan dropping the fist thing that is within range. I will never hold out until the last day of the season and then will take anything legal to put meat in the freezer.

For trophy hunters I fully understand holding out for a big buck and don't fault them for it.

But seriously, I think that it’s a good thing that we all have different expectations in mind when venturing into the field and I have a lot of respect for someone willing to take on the challenge of holding out for a trophy buck.

Hey pretty good satire of me there pal, well played!

Just to add it is a personal thing. When I was a younger guy I loved Cottontail hunting with my trusty 22 mag more then anything in the world. In my teens twenties and early thirties I must have killed enough bunnies to feed an army. Although I still like to get out a few times a year to hunt em, my desire for a challenge became stronger and I've taken up predator hunting and even though I'm not the most successful guy in the world I'm having a blast learning it and getting the rare successes that I do.

Kind of the same with deer hunting for me. When I was younger if a deer with so much as a stub of horn showed himself and I had a tag he usually wasn't around much longer. Now I've not only taken my fair share but seen so many smaller buck and not killed but seen some marvelous trophy bucks in the wild the desire to get some nice racks on the wall is what drives me. Though I love deer meat and eat what I kill luckily I'm not depending on it for survival ala Jeremiah Johnson and can now afford to be somewhat selective in pursuit of some nice horn. Besides if you kill a spike on the first day what do you do the rest of the week?

Interesting subject here.
I think, in a fair chase diy hunt, any animal you are happy with is great and you'd get my sincere congratulations. I would never measure you or your ability by the size of (or lack of ) your animal.
Sadly, in today's world, much of what we see on the internet, hunting shows, magazines or hear in tales passed along, are fenced hunts, exotic hunts and staged hunts.
To me these unrealistic tales and deeds of kills that are not "fair" are not only
hurting our sport, but also disrespecting the game animals that we persue.
If you have unlimited funds and can pay to hunt anything anywhere, good for you. If you do so in a fence or hire an army to do all the work so you can show up and take the glory, after they have found it for you, then I don't need to hear your tale. I'd rather hear from the guy in the picture on this thread who is thrilled to death to pack out his own public land animal, on his back, and get the satisfaction of a successful hunt.
Good luck to all this season.

I have a system I use in Whitetail hunting during the rut that seems to work for me. When I make a mock scrape in the area I wish to hunt I will place a couple of 35mm
film canisters (film removed of course) in the scrape after I have cleared out all leaves and other debris. The film canisters are filled with cotton balls and saturated with doe in heat urine. This keeps the urine from soaking in the ground and can be refreshed on each trip if needed. I will also use the tarsal gland of the buck...